Only Under the Rafters
by Pistols-at-dawn
Summary: Muriel Weasley begins her first year of Hogwarts in 1898, and immediately encounters: a vampire, a book, a long-lost Heir, a secret passage in an unpleasant location, an old hat (but not the one you think), and a certain sixth year named Albus Dumbledore. It's certain to be an interesting year, at least...


_September first, 1898_

Her name is Muriel Weasley and at eleven years old she is the eldest of six daughters, and the first to leave home. She waits nervously at the railroad station, sitting on her trunk with her ankles delicately crossed, as the rumble of the approaching magical steam engine threatens to shake the flimsy train platform into pieces.

Muriel has never ridden a train before, and finds the idea slightly ridiculous. They must pass trial by this ground shaking Muggle monstrosity before being allowed to attend. Her father says that in his day a witch might arrive at Hogwarts by Portkey, or Floo, or broomstick if she so desired. He does not explain how the Muggleborns were expected to arrive and Muriel suspects that they may not have been expected to at all.

The train slows and finally stops, unlike Muriel's racing heart. Crazy Muggles. And to think her father calls dragons dangerous.

She stands and drags her trunk towards the nearest door with a less than lady-like huff when she sets it down. She reaches over and opens the carriage door, steps up onto the landing and starts to turn back round for her trunk, only to find the heavy chest is already pushing its way into the door apparently autonomously, hovering a few inches off the ground.

Muriel looks up at the crooked smile of a boy quite a bit older than herself, with a prefects badge pinned to his red trimmed Gryffindor robes, and his wand pointed languidly at her trunk, which is now cozying up to her leg like a cat and gently nudging her. Muriel turns red enough to clash with her hair and bends down to regain her grip on the trunk's handle, mumbling, "thanks."

"Certainly, Miss Weasley," the boy says with a disarmingly bright smile. He doesn't release her trunk, but instead follows her into the carriage, closing the door behind him and levitating her trunk between one of the seats. Muriel doesn't need to ask why he knows she's a Weasely, even with her flaming red hair tied back in a tight braid, neat for her first day at Hogwarts.

"Oh, so," Muriel says quietly, not quite sure what to say to the prefect who's now picking his fingernails with his wand. "Aren't you supposed to be near the front with the other perfects?" she blurts.

"Yep," he says helpfully. Muriel smooths her skirts and gives him a _look_ out of the corner of her eye. He's an odd boy, she thinks with a hint of the rather judgmental attitude her nervousness has so far served to repress. Wavy auburn hair to his shoulders, his robe on even in the Muggle waystation, and a smirk that never quite leaves his lips. His eyes flick up to catch her staring and grins, and she looks down quickly.

"My name's Muriel," she offers, glancing back up at him. He nods.

"I'm Albus," he says. "You're a first year?"

"Yes."

"Good for you," he replies seriously. "The hurglubums only eat teenagers." She gives him a sharp look and the corner of his mouth turns up in amusement.

"I don't believe you," she tells him. He shrugs.

"Believe what you will, but watch out for the merpeople. They like firsties just fine." Muriel narrows her eyes at him. She is beginning to wonder if the other prefects didn't actually want him, and if anyone else is planning to sit in their carriage at all.

"I'm going to read my schoolbooks now, Albus," She informs the snickering Gryffindor loftily, and leans over the seat to rummage through her messy trunk in search of her potions textbook.

"Already? Planning to be in Ravenclaw?"

"No!" Muriel says quickly "Weasleys are Gryffindors." She finds her book of choice and returns to her seat.

"If you're going to be a Gryffindor you ought to listen to me. I'm a prefect, you kno-" Albus starts to tell her, but the door of the carriage suddenly slams open and interrupts him.

"_Dumbledore_," insists the boy standing in the doorway. "Someone said they saw you come in here. _What_ are you doing? You're supposed to be in the prefects carriage, not bothering first years." The boy is condescending despite being slightly out of breath. He's not a prefect himself, and has most likely been sent down the entire train seeking the errant Gryffindor prefect. Albus gives Muriel a slight bow and vanishes out the door just as the warning rumble of the engines starting shakes the entire train.

The boy is a third or fourth year, with broad shoulders and neat black hair. His Muggle suit, while slightly askew from chasing down Albus, is of a quality that says that everyone here should know who he is already. Muriel does, of course, know who he is. She's a Pureblood, after all, and her family may not be rich but she can recognize a Black when she sees one. Arcturus, she assumes.

The boy who is presumably Arcturus Black gives her a little sneer as greeting, and hops into the carriage, slamming the door behind him in a way that makes it very clear that he wouldn't be sitting anywhere near her if the train weren't starting at this exact moment. Muriel returns the sentiment with equal fervor.

When it becomes clear that neither of the Purebloods are planning to break the silence, Muriel settles back into her seat and concentrates on reading her potions textbook. The rocking train is relaxing after a while, once she gets used to it, with the cushioned leather seats and the dull roar of the engine ahead, and the fields outside the window flashing past. She occasionally glances up at Arcturus to judge him. He seems to look a little better every time she looks at him, which she might think was all in her head if she hadn't twice caught him looking in a pocket mirror and fixing his hair when he thought she was reading. Once, she looks up to find him vanished entirely, though she hadn't even heard him get up, and when he returns a few moments later he's properly outfitted in green trimmed Slytherin robes.

Muriel can't figure out where in heaven Arcturus went to change clothes, so she has to change hiding behind her trunk, and ignoring the odd snicker from the other side of the carriage.

(A/N: thnx Hitschiin Gossip Girl 4 beta! C: go read her stories r awesome ^^ oh and btw, muriel is 2 years older in this story than in canon so she can go 2 school w/ dumbledore!)


End file.
